Restraining structure for beds



Sept., 25, 1962 s. N. MANN 3,055,020

RESTRAINING STRUCTURE FOR BEDS Filed Feb. 1o, 1961 sheets-sheet 1 .N RQ

ROI i i n Qq INVENTOR.

STUART/WILSON MAN/V BY i 6M 4 @uw TT/Q/VEVS.

Sept. 25, 1962 sQ N. MANN RESTRAINING STRUCTURE FOR BEDS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. l0. 1961 mw M 6 m N 0 c W 0 n 6 1 5 A L f., f df 7 E 7 MW T 6 5 9 6 Z 3 34 k WWW/Mw, lt W7 m W. 3 0 m w 8 f/T IIIJHIIJI lllll Il maux# United States Patent Oliiice 3,@5520 Patented Sept. 25, 1962 3,055,029 RESTRAINING STRUCTURE FOR BEDS Stuart Nelson Mann, Derby, N.Y., assigner to The Hard Manufacturing Co., Bullalo, N.Y. Filed Feb. 10, 1961, Ser. No. 88,494 7 Claims. (Cl. 5--331) This invention relates to beds for hospital and similar uses and particularly to a novel side structure for restraining patients or other occupants of the beds.

Numerous prior art structures have been proposed and constructed to provide a side fence or guard rail structure for beds, usually but not necessarily for hospital use. These fence or guard rail structures are commonly called restraining rails and are usually retractible so that they may be moved downward out of the way when their use is not required.

The present invention provides a restraining rail structure which comprises essentially a parallelogram linkage. The use of a parallelogram linkage arrangement is not broadly new in the bed restraining rail art but the present invention provides a novel positional relationship between the upright and horizontal members, these parts being pivoted to each other in a manner which provides a safe non-pinching arrangement.

In parallelogram linkages of the prior art the upright and horizontal members have been subject to a scissors action, particularly during collapsing movement of the rail structure but also to some extent in raising movement thereof. This requires great care on the part of the nurse or other operator of the structure to avoid pinching the lingers or other members of either the operator or the patient. Garments and bedclothes are also apt to be pinched in prior art collapsible side rail structures.

A further object of the present invention is attained in providing a simple and convenient counterbalance for the bed rail structure to counterbalance the weight of the parts so that operation thereof, and particularly raising movement, is effected with a minimum of effort.

A further important advantage of the present invention resides in the provision of quick attachable and detachable means for the complete restraining rail struc-ture. While these restraining rails are conventionally movable to lowered positions wherein they are inoperative, the presence thereof even in inoperative position presents a projecting obstruction along the side rail structure of the bed which is objectionable.

Accordingly the present invention provides a side rail structure of such nature that it may be completely removed from the bed by simple manipulation of a pair of latch levers or trigger members and may be applied to a bed as needed by merely placing the same 4against the side rail structure of the bed and pressing the same to latched position. Since restraining rail structures are only `occasionally used in hospitals, all or most of the beds in a hospital may be provided with suitable more or less fixed mounting plates or brackets for the restraining rail structure and only a few restraining rail devices need be available, the same being interchangeably applicable to the various beds.

Releasable latch means are provided which latch the restraining rail structure in raised operative position automatically upon movement thereof to such position, the latch means being readily releasable when lowering movement is desired. Other objects and advantages of the restraining rail structure of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the present art from a study of the embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the following specification. However, it is to be understood that such embodiment is by Way of example only and that various mechanical modifications and variations may be introduced without departing from the principles of the invention, the scope of the latter being limited only as dened in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

FIG. l is a general side elevational View of a bed with one form of the restraining rail structure applied thereto;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary elevational view, partly in cross section, showing a portion of one of the upright members of FIG. 1 on an enlarged scale;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged elevational view of the lower right hand portion of the restraining rail structure of FIG. l viewed as in FIG. 1 and showing one of the pivotal mountings of such structure;

FIG. 4 is an oblique side elevational view of the structure of FIG. 3 with portions thereof omitted for added clarity;

FIG. 5 is an irregular fragmentary horizontal cross sectional view through the pivot bearing structure of one of the upright members, taken approximately as indicated by `the line V-V of FIG. 6;

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view of the structure of FIG. 5 but showing only the relatively lixed mounting structure, the restraining rail `structure being removed for simplicity of illustration', and

FiG. 7 is a cross sectional view taken on the line VII-Vil `of FIG. 5i.

Like characters of reference denote like parts throughout the several figures `of the drawing and, referring particularly to FIG. l, the restraining rail structure illustrated in the drawings and described herein by way of example comprises a pair of uprights 1l] and 11, each of which is channelashaped in transverse cross-section with the open sides of the channels facing toward each other.

Each `of the uprights 1t) and 11 is fixed to a box-shaped base member, the same being designated respectively 12 and 13 in FIG. l. The uprights may be welded to or interfitted with the base members 12 and 13 in any desired manner. The box-shaped base members 12 and 13 are detachably pivotally connected to mounting plates designated 14 and 15, respectively, which Iare fixed to a spring rail 16 which forms a conventional part of a bed structure which, as generally indicated in FIG. 1, has a headboard 17 and a footboard 18.

The flanges of the channel-shaped upright members 10 and 11 are provided with vertically spaced pairs of projecting bearing formations designated 2d, 21 and 22 as by upright member 10 and 23, 24 and 25 as by upright member 1l. Horizontally extending tubular bars designated 26, 2'7 and 28 are pivotally attached at their opposite ends between pairs of the projecting bearing formations 20 through 25 as clearly shown in FIG. l. The arrangement is such that the pivot axes of these pivotal connections lie substantially outside of the confines of the channel upright members proper, the pivot axes of upright member 10 being `offset toward the upright member 11 and vice versa.

As indicated earlier herein, the base members 12 and 13 of the uprights 10 yand 11 are pivoted to mounting plates 14 and 15 in `such a way that the upright members 10 and 11 and the horizontal bars 26, 27 and 2S may readily be pivoted from the full line position of FIG. l to the retracted dot and dash line position, the parts comprising a parallelogram linkage. It will be noted that the box-shaped base member 13 extends somewhat obliquely in the upright position illustrated in full lines in FIG. l. 'In the collapsed position of the parts the base member 13 extends substantially horizontally so that its left-hand side as viewed in full lines in FIG. l becomes `a horizontally extending upper side which is spaced substantially above the adjacent portion of upright 11. Accordingly the lower surface of lower bar 28 comes into abutting engagement with such upper surface of base member 13 and forms a stop which limits the collapsing movement `of the parts to the dot and dash line position illustrated in FIG. 1.

It will be noted that due to the projecting bearing formations Ztl through 25 and the locations of the pivots thereon collapsing movement of this parallelogram linkage is accomplished without the pinching or scissors action normally associated with parallel linkages. Specically it will be noted that after full collapsing movement the upper left-hand side of each of the bars 26, 27 and 28 is still spaced substantially from the adjacent edge of the main body porti-on of upright member itl and that a similar condition prevails as between the lower righthand sides of the horizontal bars and the adjacent edge surfaces of the main body portion of upright member 11.

The means for mounting the restraining rail structure for detachable pivotal connection with the bed structure will now be described. Each of the box-shaped base meinbers 12 and 13 is provided with a pivot pin, the same being ydesignated 30 and 31, respectively, in FIG. 1. The details of construction, assembly and operation of the detachable pivotal mounting of upright member 11 are illustrated in FIGS. 3 through 7 and it is to be understood that duplicate detachable pivotal mounting means is provided for upright member 10.

In order that a free and smooth parallelogram linkage action occurs during lowering and raising movements of the restraining rail structure it is essential that the longitudinal center to center distance between the pivots 3@ land 31 be the same as the longitudinal center to center distance between the pivotal connections of the several bars 26, 27 and 28 with the upright members 10 and 11. For this reason and to produce the desired positional relationship of these several parts in the lowered position of the structure, as shown in dot and dash lines in FIG. 1, the lower portion of upright member 11 is offset toward the upright member as clearly illustrated in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 4, pivot pin 31 is riveted at one end to the outer wall of box-shaped base member 13 and projects through the interior of the box-shaped member and beyond the same, terminating in a conical point portion 33. Inwardly of the point portion 33 pin 31 is provided with an annular retaining groove 34 and the manner in which the pivot pin 31 is assembled with mounting plate 15 will now be described.

A box-like bearing bracket member designated generally by the numeral 36 is lixed to the inner side of mounting plate as by welding or the like. The box-like member 36 has been omitted from FIG. 4 for simplicity of illustration. Referring particularly to FIGS. 5, 6 and 7, bearing bracket member 36 comprises a Vertical wall portion 37, side walls 38 terminating in base ilanges 39, a top wall 40 terminating in a base iiange 41, and a bottom wall 42. Referring particularly to FIG. 5, wall portion 37 of bracket member 36 is provided with an annular flange 44 which cooperates with a coaxial aperture in mounting plate 15 to provide solid pivot bea-ring support for pin 31. A snap ring 45 in an annular groove in pin 31 limits inward movement thereof with respect to mounting plate 15 as shown in FIG. 5.

When pin 31 is in fully assembled position with respect to mounting plate 15 it is securely held against inadvertent disassembly by a locking pin 47 which bears in the opposite side walls 33 of bearing bracket member 36 and terminates outwardly of the latter in a manipulating lever or trigger member 48. It will be noted from FIG. 6 that manipulating lever 48 has corner projections which abut the adjacent face of mounting plate 15 to limit movement of lever 48 in opposite directions.

Lever 48 and locking pin 47 are illustrated in their unlatched positions in FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 wherein trigger member is being manually pressed to disengage pivot 31. However, the locking pin and trigger member are normally biased to locking position by a torsion spring 5t) which, as clearly shown in FIG. 6, bears at one end against one of the side flanges 39 and at its other against the lever 48 to urge the latter resiliently to the locking position illustrated in dot and dash lines in FIG. 6.

Locking pin 47 is provided` with an arcuate notch 51 which permits free insertion or withdrawal of locking pin 47 when the parts are in the full line position of FIG. 6 so that an operator merely depresses the trigger members and pulls the restraining rail structure away from the spring rail of the bed. In applying the structure the pins are merely inserted in the apertures in the mounting plates 14 and 15 and the pointed ends of the pins 30 and 31 act against the notches in the locking pins and cam the locking pins to unlocking position until the annular grooves in the pivot pins 36 and 31 register with the locking pins whereupon the latter automatically assume locking positions.

As indicated earlier herein means are provided for latching the restraining rail structure in an upright operative position and such means is illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4. Referring to these gures, the numeral 55 indicates a latch handle member having a latch shaft portion 56 which is mounted for rotation in box-like member 13. A latching pawl 57 is fixed to shaft portion 56 and is urged toward mounting plate 15 by a torsion spring 58.

When the rail structure is raised to operative position pawl 57 engages behind an ear or lug 60 struck from mounting plate 15 to retain the structure securely in raised position. To lower the rail structure it is merely necessary to pull the latch handle member `55 in a direction away from the bed against the resilient resistance of torsion spring 58 whereupon the rail structure may be lowered. A stop ange 61 which may be struck from the outer face of box-like member 13 limits upward movement of the rail structure.

To facilitate raising the rail structure with a minimum of elfort means are provided which counterbalance the weight of the rail structure so that both raising and lowering movements may be effected by very light manual pressure in either direction, only sufcient to overcome frictional forces. Each of the uprights 1t) and 11 is provided with a counterbalance extension coil spring which is housed generally within the same.

FIG. 2 shows the counterbalance spring at the head end of the restraining rail structure, the same comprising an extension coil spring 64 which is mounted within the channel upright member 16 as shown in FIG. 2. The upper end of spring 64 is anchored to a pin 65 which is attached to the channel member and the lower end is connected to one arm of an angle member 66 whose other arm is engaged within the adjacent end of the horizontal tubular member 2S.

Collapsing movement of the parallelogram rail structure causes a slight extension of coil spring 64 and consequent resilient resistance which acts in opposition to the force of gravity on the rail structure. A similar counterbalance spring is housed within the other channel upright member 11 but in a reversed position, that is, the lower end of such spring is connected directly to upright member 11 and the upper end is connected to an angle member similar to angle member 66 which is assembled in horizontal member 27 and has a depending arm for connection with the upper end of the spring. 'Ihus both counterbalance springs are extended by collapsing movement of the rail structure and relaxed by raising movement thereof.

In FIG. 1 the general relative position of the mattress with respect to the restraining rail structure is indicated fragmentarily at 70, the numeral 71 designating the mattress supporting structure which may be movably mounted with respect to the spring rails 16.

I claim:

l. In a restraining side structure for beds, a pair of spaced upright channel members disposed with their open sides facing each other and adapted to be pivoted at their lower ends to the side portion of the framework of a bed, the flange portions of said channel members having portions projecting therefrom toward the other channel member to form pairs of spaced bearing portions offset substantially from the channel members proper, a plurality of vertically spaced horizontally extending tubular members having their ends pivoted between pairs of said bearing portions to form a parallelogram linkage, and stop means for limiting downward pivotal movement of said upright members to a predetermined oblique position, the pivot axes of said bars being offset from the channel members proper a suiiicient distance that during collapsing movement of said parallelogram linkage the approaching sides of said channel members and said tubular members maintain substantial spacing to avoid pinching.

2. In a restraining side structure for beds, a pair of spaced upright channel members adapted to be pivoted at their lower ends to the side portion of the framework of a bed, said members having portions projecting therefrom toward the other member to form bearing members oifset substantially from the upright members proper, a plurality of vertically spaced horizontally extending rail members having their ends pivoted to said bearing members to form a parallelogram linkage, and stop means for limiting downward pivotal movement of said upright members to a predetermined oblique position, the pivot axes of said bars being offset from the members proper a ysufficient distance so that during collapsing movement of said parallelogram linkage the approaching sides of said upright members and said rail members maintain sufficient spacing to avoid harmful pinching.

3. In a restraining side structure for beds, a iirst upright channel member `and a second upright channel member spaced longitudinally therefrom, both of said channel members being pivoted at their lower ends to a bed frame for movement in a plane common to the two upright members and having their open sides facing each other, the iianges of each of said channel members having portions projecting therefrom toward the other upright member to form bearing members oifset substantially from the upright members proper, a plurality of vertically spaced horizontally extending rail members having their ends pivoted to said bearing members to form a parallelogram linkage collapsible in a direction toward said second upright member, and stop means for limiting downward pivotal movement of said upright members to a predetermined oblique position, said second upright member having its lower portion extending obliquely toward the iirst upright member and the longitudinal spacing of the pivots of said upright members being substantially equal to the longitudinal spacing of the pivotal connections of said rail members.

4. In a restraining side structure for beds, a rst upright member and a second upright member spaced longitudinally therefrom, both of said upright members being pivoted at their lower ends to a bed frame for movement in a plane common to the two upright members, said members having portions projecting therefrom toward the other member to form bearing members offset substantially from the upright members proper, a plurality of vertically spaced horizontally extending rail members having their ends pivoted to said bearing members to form a parallelogram linkage collapsible in a direction toward said second upright member, and stop means for limiting downward pivotal movement of said upright members to a predetermined oblique position, said second upright member having its lower portion extending obliquely toward the first upright member and the longitudinal spacing of the pivots of said upright members being substantially equal to the longitudinal spacing of the pivotal connections of said rail members.

5. In a restraining side structure for beds, a rst upright channel member and a second upright channel member spaced longitudinally therefrom, said channel members having their open sides facing each other and being pivoted at their lower ends to a bed frame for movement in a plane common to the two upright members, a plurality of vertically spaced horizontally extending rail members having their ends pivoted to the flanges of said channel members to form a parallelogram linkage collapsible in a direction toward said second upright member, and stop means Ifor limiting downward pivotal movement of said upright members to a predetermined oblique position, said second upright member having its lower portion extending obliquely toward the rst upright member and the longitudinal spacing of the pivots .of said upright members being substantially equal to the longitudinal spacing of the pivotal connections of said rail members.

6. In a restraining side structure for beds, a pair of spaced upright channel members disposed with their open sides facing each other and adapted to be pivoted at their lower ends to the side portion of the framework of a bed, a plurality of vertically spaced horizontally extending rail members having their ends pivoted between the flanges of said channel members to form a downwardly collapsible parallelogram linkage, and counterbalance means comprising an extension coil spring disposed generally within one of said channel members with one of its ends attached thereto and its opposite end attached to an end of one of said rail members eccentrically with respect to the adjacent pivot of said rail member whereby collapsing movement of said `linkage extends said spring to resiliently counterbalance the force of gravity on the structure.

7. In a restraining `side structure for beds, a pair of spaced upright channel members disposed with their open sides facing each other and adapted to be pivoted at their lower ends to the side portion of the framework of a bed, the ange portions of said channel members having bearing extensions projecting toward the other channel member, a plurality of vertically spaced horizontally extending rail members having their ends pivoted between said bearing extensions to form a downwardly collapsible parallelogram linkage, and counterbalance spring means acting between one of said channel members and the adjacent end of one of said rail members to urge said linkage resiliently toward an upright position against the force of gravity on the structure.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 926,420 Jeifcott June 29, 1909 2,587,291 Des Rochers Feb. 26, 1952 2,799,869 Leone et al July 23, 1957 2,817,855 Pratt Dec. 31, 1957 2,955,298 Rurka Oct. l1, 1960 2,972,153 Turk Feb. 21, 1961 

